132 Three's a Crowd

An emperor's heart was hard to fathom. 

Never had this thought run through the minds of the concubines in the imperial harem than it did now. Those who had been left behind to stew in their loneliness when the entourage had headed over to seek blessed refuge in the shade of the mountains had heard, without warning, that the emperor had decided to return before the summer's end just to celebrate the coming of age of his favourite.